Thanks to philosopher Phil Gasper for calling my attention to this profile, which is both interesting, but also a bit surprising:
Honderich may be in for further trouble with his revised edition of the Oxford Companion to Philosophy. He's typically downbeat about his part in the original project. "I think I was only asked because I was considered reliable," he says. "Other philosophers had said they would do it and then failed to deliver on deadline. I imagine they thought it wasn't proper work for a philosopher."
This time round, free from the constraints of the academic circus, he's been free to make 300 additions, including "ableism" - "it basically means being condescending to cripples" - and "zombies". But it's the subtractions that will cause the biggest stir, as they are mostly philosophers who have failed to live up to their promise or with whom Honderich has had spats. He declines to list them - "you could check both volumes" - but he does offer an explanation. "There are bonds of civility we all owe to other people," he says. "If people break those bonds we are under a lesser obligation to maintain them ourselves."
One wonders whether OUP was aware of this editorial approach to the second edition? And I'm guessing there will not be an entry for Colin McGinn!
UPDATE: A couple of readers point out that this article is actually several years old, which I had not notice; Prof. Gasper sent it to me only recently.
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